Education

Vaccination

A painful jab in your arm or bottom. Vaccination hurts for a while but it has all but eradicated diphtheria, polio and tuberculosis in Western countries.

A painful jab in your arm or bottom. Vaccination hurts for a while but it has all but eradicated diphtheria, polio and tuberculosis in Western countries.

Stimulating antibodies

Vaccination causes a reaction in your immune system which wants to protect your body from causes of illness (pathogens). Your immune system produces antibodies to make the pathogen harmless. Vaccines do not contain strong pathogens but weakened or dead ones, or parts of pathogens. This prevents you from becoming really sick after vaccination although it can sometimes result in fever. That is because the immune system starts fighting against the harmless pathogens.

Long period of immunity

The idea behind vaccination is that the antibodies which you produce stay in your blood for an extended period of time, protecting you if your body comes into contact with the live pathogen. So you are protected against the illness. This is termed being immune. How long you remain immune to a particular illness after vaccination depends on the vaccine and the pathogen. Dutch children are immunised against various diseases, such as diphtheria, whooping cough and polio. It is sometimes advisable or even obligatory to be vaccinated against various illnesses, such as hepatitis A and B if you are travelling abroad.